World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF ASIA: Last Gap

Only the 60-mile gap around Kweilin stood between the Japs and
their immediate strategic objectives in Chinaa continuous
2,000-mile front and communications system from Siberia to the
South China Sea. Chungking, desperately hoping to make
Kweilin the Stalingrad of Free China, worked mightily to stave off
disaster.

The city's commander, General Pai Chung-hsi, one of Generalissimo Chiang
Kai-shek's most trusted aides, was receiving China's pitiful best in
reinforcements, arms and food. Kweilin and its strange hills, like
inverted ice cream cones, began to bristle with improvised defenses:
coolies dug broad trenches in the city's streets and vacant lots....